Whether you’re avoiding peanuts or all Top 8 allergens, check out these tasty allergy-friendly recipes we found. Most are Top 8 Free, and some may be able to have substitutions to fit your needs. Be sure to only use ingredients/products that are safe for your allergy & ALWAYS read EVERY label, EVERY time on the ingredients/products that you use.

Hope you’re having a great summer! You might be getting ready to take a family vacation, send your child off to camp, or just have fun at home. I found some helpful resources and wanted to make sure you knew about them too.

The end of the school year can bring excitement to the children and relief to the parents. Maybe your school was great working with you and your child’s food allergy, or maybe there’s some improvement that needs to get made.

For either situation, here are 5 things you can do to end this school year, and help start the next year off right:

When your child has food allergies, here are 5 important things you need to do after the holidays:

1.Be sure to remind others about food allergy safety. After the long winter break, it’s the perfect time to remind teachers, classmates and their parents about food allergy safety. And remember, Valentine’s Day is coming up next month! Be sure to talk to the teacher about events for the party and discuss allergy-friendly options so your child can safely participate in the fun.

1. Assuming the product is safe because you’ve used it before. Manufacturing & ingredients can change! Kellogg’s change of ingredients is a great example – they started using peanut flour in some of their sandwich crackers (visit FARE for more information about this).

Also, be sure to always read the ENTIRE label so you don’t miss important allergen information that might be stated in a different area. You can visit FAACT for more label reading tips.

It’s Back-to-School time! When meeting with the teacher, it’s critical that they fully understand about your child’s allergy; they’ll be one of the biggest team members to help keep your child safe. Discuss with them any concerns you may have, and find out their suggestions to help increase safety… they’re the ones who know about the classroom dynamics and how the school day flows.

Here are 3 important topics you’ll want to discuss with your child’s teacher:

Here are some things you can do at the end of this school year…to help provide a safer start for the next school year.

If your child attended school or preschool this year:

Now’s the perfect time to express your gratitude, for their help in keeping your child safe. If you feel your child’s teacher, nurse or principal did an excellent job working with you and your child’s food allergy…be sure to let them know about it! Everyone likes to hear “thank you” and feel appreciated.